Chapter 16

Wearing nothing but a loincloth and a small leather bag around his neck, William walked to the edge of the stream. Once there, he paused and looked down at the ground. At the border between water and land was a stone that caught his attention. Kneeling, he picked it up.

The stone was the diameter of a quarter with a thickness of a quarter of an inch. The edges were worn smooth. There was nothing remarkable about the stone except for one feature -- the center of the stone had been worn away to produce a hole. It was a stone of great power. Thousands of years had gone into its formation. It required events that were so unlikely that the existence of the stone should be impossible.

William pulled the leather bag from around his neck and attached the stone to it. Replacing it around his neck, he knew the medicine bag was complete. Lucy had made the medicine bag under the supervision of Linda. The bag had traditional beading, but had been decorated with the eagle feathers, the rattle, and, now, the stone. Inside the medicine bag were sacred herbs.

The stream chilled him as he waded into the water until it came to his knees. He cupped his hands. Bending, he filled his hands with water. He lifted his cupped hands over his head and allowed the water to cascade onto his head. He repeated that until his entire body was wet.

His ritual bathing complete, William left the stream and headed towards the sweat lodge. He noted with satisfaction that it was well placed for communication with the spirits. The door opened eastwards, the direction from which everything starts. He picked up his drum. Days of preparation had brought him to the proper mental and emotional state for his spirit journey. It was now necessary to undergo the ritual cleansing of the sweat lodge.

William joined the other men standing outside the small shelter. The oldest man lit a sage smudge and cleansed each man with its smoke. After a prayer, half of the men entered the shelter with him. The floor of the sweat lodge was covered with cedar boughs. The other half of the men, the Dog Soldiers, remained outside to tend the fire, pass the stones into the lodge, and to protect the ceremony.

Once the men had sat down upon the cedar boughs, a dog soldier thrust stones into the lodge using a forked stick. The largest stone went into the middle of the central pit. Around the center stone, stones were placed in the four cardinal directions. As each stone was brought into the lodge, it was sprinkled with sage. The air filled with the rich scent. Water was sprinkled onto the rocks creating a cloud of steam. The men passed around an ancient pipe.

The oldest man started beating on his drum. William followed suit. When the chanting started, the atmosphere in the lodge changed. The physical reality of the world outside disappeared, to be replaced by a smoky otherworld feel. Time passed as more stones were brought into the sweat lodge. The pores of William's skin opened and his body was soon covered with thin film of sweat.

When the last of the rocks had cooled in the sweat lodge, one of the dog soldiers opened the flap covering the entrance. Fresh air rushed in displacing the steam and smell of sage. William's mind cleared with influx the fresh air.

One of the men pointed down a path. William knew that he was to follow the path to a small cave along a cliff for his vision quest. Mediating, he made the walk along the path. After walking for two hours he arrived at the cave. Taking a seat he mediated and waited for his vision to descend upon him.

William entered the fog. Beneath his feet was the hard dust of the desert. There was a small murmur of noise as if water was cascading through a distant shallow narrow of a river. He waited for his guide to arrive. Time had lost its normal progression as he was in another world.

A raven appeared before him and gave forth a croak that said, "Follow me."

When the raven took wing, William followed. As he walked the path, the nature of the path changed from desert to woodland to plains to swamp, but the fog surrounding him remained. Along the way, animals appeared along the path. In each natural environment, the animals special to those places presented themselves to him. There was the rattlesnake, deer, bear, otter, eagle, hawk, mouse, buffalo, coyote, and cougar, to name a few. At each animal, the raven paused for William to give honor to the animal.

The raven led William to the edge of a great meadow surrounded by ancient oak trees. The fog rolled back revealing the meadow in its full glory. The sun shined from above. Vines blocked his path to the meadow. Around him, the seasons changed. The vines withered and fell away. With a last croak, the raven left leaving William free to enter the meadow.

The vision lifted and William's consciousness returned to the cave. Standing, he returned down the path that he had followed to reach the cave. Reaching the sweat lodge, he greeted the men waiting for him. The ritual of the sweat lodge was repeated.

When the last stone had cooled. The other men in the lodge stopped their drumming and chanting. All turned to look at William. In a gruff voice, he said, "Always the same vision."

"Talks With Animals," said one of the men capturing in one statement both William's name and the interpretation of the majority of the vision. The other men nodded their agreement. No one would talk about the end of the vision.

Stepping outside the sweat lodge, William felt weak and extremely tired. He had gone three days without food or sleep. He returned to the stream and washed the sweat from his body. The cool water against his hot body chilled and refreshed him. One of the men who had waited outside the sweat lodge handed him a bottle of sports drink and said, "Drink this. You'll feel better."

Smiling his thanks, William accepted the bottle. It was lukewarm, which was better for him than ice cold. Opening it, he took a long swallow replacing water and minerals that had been lost in the sweat lodge. He knew not to drink more than his body could handle. Now that his throat was not quite so rough, he said, "Thanks."

Chief Awa Tsireh asked, "What will you do now?"

"I will go home, work on my dissertation, and love my girlfriend."

"What about the White Buffalo?"

"I'll go to the sweat lodge at the Native American College and then go to the ranch in August," answered William.

Chief Awa Tsireh smiled and nodded his head at the idea that William would go to the Native American College first. He knew that William placed the five hundred tribes above any single tribe and, in his opinion, that was the right thing to do. He said, "You do your great-grandfather great honor by that choice. You do all of the Native American people a great service."

William walked into the Carter House and was immediately met by Mary Gold holding her normal pad of paper. She said, "Welcome back, William. I've only got a few items for you."

"I'm tired," said William knowing that wouldn't stop her.

"It'll just take a minute," said Mary in her incredibly sexy voice. She glanced at him and then continued, "First item. There is a William Redbird who wants to interview you for the Native American Times. He's staying in Phoenix waiting to meet you."

"Give me the rest before I decide on that one," said William. He didn't really want to give an interview, but knew that he wasn't going to be able to avoid it.

"Second item. I've got three locations identified where you can work on your dissertation. First one is at Lake George, New York. The second one is in Princeton, Iowa. The third one is outside of Pine Bluff, Arkansas."

"Tell me about Pine Bluff."

"It's an isolated house along the river about fifteen minutes outside of Pine Bluff. There's fishing and hunting in the area," answered Mary Gold. She had examined aerial photographs of the area and had liked it.

"Set up a visit to it on the way back to Pennsylvania in two days."

"Alone?"

"Lucy and I," answered William.

Mary Gold smiled and made a note to that effect on her pad. Looking up, she said, "Third item. Ann will be going to Denver for a week to look at the halls for the wedding. We've set her up with a hotel and driver."

"Good. Make sure she has the resources to have a good time," said William.

"I've already done that. Cathy will go there with her to make sure that she spends it," said Mary with a smile.

"Very good."

"Fourth item. Your play money account hit two hundred million again. One of the special effects companies you invested in hit it big at the box office. Its stock price went from four to forty almost overnight."

William frowned as he considered the news. He sighed and said, "Give me a list of charities and I'll move half of the money to them. Get the accountants to calculate the taxes on eighty million. I'll move the after-tax money over to my conservative accounts and start over at twenty million in my play money account."

"That only took you six months this time," said Mary.

"I know," answered William. Sighing, he asked, "Any more items?"

"Nope."

"Tell William Redbird that I'll meet him at Shirley's Bar tomorrow at noon," said William. He yawned and said, "I'm going to sleep now."

It was eleven when William and Lucy left for Shirley's Bar to meet William Redbird. Walking down the street, William introduced Lucy to the neighbors. The neighbors greeted Lucy like a long lost friend. All of them welcomed her to the town with the kind of graciousness that was humbling.

Lucy was amazed at the lack of conflict between the rich and poor of town. In fact, she found it difficult to distinguish between the two classes. She had met Rosa and thought she was middleclass until she found out that the woman owned one of the largest chains of Mexican food restaurants in the state. The small three-bedroom house didn't seem the kind of house that would appeal to a millionaire.

It took almost forty-five minutes to reach Shirley's bar. Lucy looked at William puzzled by the destination. She said, "We're not old enough to go in there."